“Fantastic feedback for LeanerFasterStronger.”

Ben Addis in LeanerFasterStronger, Crucible Studio until June 2nd.

Delighted to find the following on the Sheffield Theatres website: http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/about/news/news/leanerfasterstronger-receives-fantastic-feedback/

LeanerFasterStronger opened in the Studio last Friday, receiving some fantastic feedback from audiences and the press. Having been Lyn Gardner’s pick of the week for The Guardian two-weeks running, the Sheffield Star found this ‘smart new play’ both ‘engaging’ and ‘eye-opening’ praising the ‘dynamic cast’, ‘innovative set design’ and ‘Andrew Loretto’s slick direction’ as well as ‘Kaite O’Reilly’s agile script’ which ‘bristles with detail gleaned from impeccable research’

The Disability Arts Online review echoes The Star’s warm reception, writing: ‘LeanerFasterStronger presents a fascinating glimpse into a brave new world. It certainly provides plenty of food for thought. So go and get your mind enhanced!’

Audiences are also enthusing about the production, finding it both engaging and thought-provoking:

‘to have not only a brand new play, but a play about elite sports, with subliminal Olympic but challenging messages was quite unexpected…we talked all the way home in the car about the ‘layers’ of message it gave us!’ 
            Judith Donovan, Legacy Trust

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‘Fascinating and superbly acted’ @andyroo84

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‘#LeanerFaster [is] very powerful! Go see!’ @hjfeathers

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‘Intriguing stuff…[presenting] big ideas and human questions’ @tgordziejko

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‘Fascinating & dynamic show with an amazing cast!’ @laurajanehamlet

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‘Had a fab night…watching LeanerFasterStronger…go see it!’ @becci_hooper

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‘there’s a depth of research and thought that makes it like watching a dynamic conversation…the script makes its arguments provocatively…Powerful performances, persuasive language…get down there before it closes on Sat’ 
Posted on Sheffield Theatres website

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‘The staging of the piece, the choreography of it [and] the physicality of the actors was very well realised…The climax…seemingly speaks about the ultimate strength and weakness of man [and the play] examined sides to sport which might not readily be discussed…We debated some of the issues on the train ride home, and that is all a piece of theatre can really hope to achieve’ 
Posted on the Guardian website

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Inspired by the 2012 Olympic Games, the play has caught the attention of the sporting community too, and we’re excited to welcome diver Tom Daley’s mentor and Olympic silver-medalist Leon Taylor to see the performance later this week, himself tweeting that he is ‘look[ing] forward to catching the performance’.

LeanerFasterStronger runs until Sat 2 June, telling the story of one man’s pursuit to be the best, asking the questions: what does it take to achieve our ambitions? What sacrifices are we prepared to make?

Catch it while you can!

Ouch! podcast: Is a disabled cyborg the future of elite sport?

LeanerFasterStronger: is a disabled cyborg the future of elite sport?

From  http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2012/05/leanerfasterstronger

Disabled playwright and author Kaite O’Reilly, who is one of the guests on the next edition of Ouch!’s disability talk show (due online towards the end of May), was approached by Chol Theatre to write a play about sport and the human experience as part of imove, Yorkshire’s cultural programme for the London 2012 Olympics. The resulting play, LeanerFasterStronger, opens at Sheffield’s Crucible Studio theatre today, Wednesday 23 May, and runs through to Saturday 2 June.

For background research, Kaite carried out detailed interviews with scientists and elite sportspeople, and also experimented in motion capture labs – where disabled and non-disabled performers saw their bodies moving as a sequence of animated dots which she says were “freed from the preconceptions that go along with viewing the same body moving in the real world”.

She became very interested in genetic and bio-engineering of humans as a species – even the idea of a ‘cyborg’.

In this guest post for Ouch!, Kaite O’Reilly looks at how this emerging science could influence the possible future of both disabled and non-disabled elite sport – which is also the focus for her play, LeanerFasterStronger.

Will we ever reach the point where impairments are ‘cured’, or ‘fixed’ in vitro? People have asked me about my stance on these developments and, as someone who culturally identifies as a disabled person and a disability artist, I know well how complex and emotive the subject can be. Yet in the context of elite sport – and the fictional world of the play I have written – other avenues open up.

As the strapline for the show goes: How far would you go to be the best? Cheat? Dope? Enhance yourself biologically to be LeanerFasterStronger than your competitors? The reality is that we may fast be approaching a glass ceiling about what humans can ‘naturally’ achieve. Elite sport is big business, and the play asks whether we can expect to continue breaking records and ‘improving’ every year without a little ‘help’?

In the 1980s, women’s athletics went through a golden period when phenomenal records were set. Decades on, those records have not been matched or beaten. The turnaround came with the introduction of dope testing. Since those (cheating?) halcyon days, women’s athletics have apparently slipped down the scale in popularity. In athletics, it seems that spectators want a spectacle, to be inspired and excited. Watching people fail to come anywhere near a world record set thirty years ago just doesn’t cut it.

There is an argument that sport tests what is possible for humans to do – it favours the ‘Übermensch’ – the idealised, ‘perfect’ human being. The commercial side of sport is reliant on new records being broken, showing more thrills and spectacle, to keep the fans involved. Various sports journalists I spoke with while researching the play said that the real excitement and focus in 2012 will be on the Paralympics. Coverage of Oscar Pistorius and his carbon ‘blades’ fills many column inches, and he has become a poster-boy for the future – the next exciting development in sport.

This then offered a perspective to me: what if, in the future, the ‘ideal’ athlete is one who has impairments and who can benefit from the speed of Pistorius, ‘the fastest man in the world on no legs’ as the New York Times described him? Developments in wheelchair racing and cycling have the bone inserting directly into the frame – ‘bone melding with steel’. LeanerFasterStronger asks whether, for a spectacle-seeking audience, the future ultimate sportsperson may in fact be a disabled one.

Press night, workshops, debate.

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KOR outside The Crucible Theatre on LeanerFasterStronger press night.

Press nights are a particularly theatrical tradition. It’s when the production officially opens, the critics come, and the company parties like there’s no performance tomorrow, invariably ending up dancing in cages in dodgy nightclubs as the dawn threatens to rise.

I think the party element was originally introduced as a distraction, a way of filling the hours before the early newspapers hit the stands and the company breakfasted with the reviews. Those days have long gone and we have to be more patient. We still await the newspaper reviews and so far I have only seen a favourable critique by Jo Verrent for Disability Arts Online:

” The performances were great and the level of ideas presented was complex and fascinating… Kaite’s work is always rich in language, tone and concept…LeanerFasterStronger presents a fascinating glimpse into a brave new world. It certainly provides plenty of food for thought. So go and get your mind enhanced!”

For the full review go to: http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/?location_id=1748

I was unable to join in the 4am ironic cage dancing in Sheffield’s finest dodgy clubs, as I was teaching a workshop at Sheffield Theatres the next morning. As part of being one of the writers at Sheffield theatres this season, I’m facilitating various events – a play reading later today of an earlier play of mine, Belonging – and a workshop at the Lyceum Theatre tomorrow:

Taking the Dramatic temperature of your Script. Tuesday 29 May 2012. 6-9pm.

A practical checklist for effective and dynamic drama: tension, pace, plot, and emotional engagement. Led by multiple award-winning writer of this season’s LeanerFasterStronger, Kaite O’Reilly.

http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/taking-the-dramatic-temperature-of-your-script/

I’m also part of a debate on new writing at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on Wednesday 30th May: Is it time to get rid of new writing?

http://www.wyp.org.uk/what%27s-on/2012/is-it-time-to-get-rid-of-new-writing/

I think it’s fantastic when one of the season’s produced playwrights is also involved in the educational outreach work of a theatre. My Saturday workshop included teachers, students, a young in career playwright, and professional director and performers. It was wonderful to be working together in the rehearsal room of the Crucible, allowing a true meeting of audience and writer, current theatre practitioner and the future generation… It’ something I love doing and feel that theatres don’t do enough. When we parted at the end of the workshop, several of the participants went off to buy their tickets to see the production, later. How often do you have the opportunity to be taught by the playwright whose work you’re seeing that evening? It’s a great initiative, and very typical of Creative Producer Andrew Loretto’s ethos – to open the doors of theatres and allow more access.

LeanerFasterStronger runs at the Crucible studio until the end of this week, with a matinee on Thursday 31st and Saturday 2nd June at 2.15pm and the evening performances at 7.45pm.

http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/leanerfasterstronger-12/

LeanerFasterStronger – public dress rehearsal

My ticket for the public dress rehearsal LeanerFasterStronger 23rd May 2012.

I love the fact that Sheffield Theatres have public dress rehearsals – and clearly a loyal audience who supports them! After rehearsing and performing to the small collection of playwright, director, movement advisor, designer, sound designer, crew and stage management, last night we threw open the doors to the general public – and the actors had their first experience of performing together before a full house.

Actor Ben Addis with an avatar boxing self.

There reaches a point where the work is ready to be put before an audience – and a public dress rehearsal is exactly that – a rehearsal. Some might see this as high risk – letting the public in to the essential culmination of a process – but as a company we embraced it. There is so much to be learned from an audience and there are always surprises – laughter in places we didn’t expect -a lack of clarity in areas we previously thought were crystal clear…. The audiences’ reactions guides us in our very last adjustments to the script and how it is presented – and we preapre for the official preview tonight….

Director Andrew Loretto in the centre, giving notes to the full company.

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For a short radio interview between BBC Radio Sheffield’s Rony Robinson and Kaite O’Reilly, go to listen again at the following link. The programme ran form 9am. The interview was at 12.30pm:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00rjdtm/Rony_Robinson_23_05_2012/

LeanerFasterStronger: The joys of tech’… 48 hours to opening.

Christopher Simpson in designer  Shanaz Gulzar’s floor projection.

It’s technical rehearsal in Sheffield Crucible Studio for LeanerStrongerFaster… A magical time, when all the individual elements which make a production all start coming together.

The devil in the detail…Movement advisor Lucy Cullingford demonstrates a last minute alteration to actor Morven Macbeth.

This is the very first time all the different strata – the text, the action, the lighting, the video projections, the physical scores, soundscape and musical composition have been layered and brought together. It’s also the first time I have got a sense of what this performance may be – the jigsaw is being pieced together – and it’s an incredibly exciting and gratifying time.

Designer and video artist Shanaz Gulzar in tech’.

Technical rehearsals are notorious… If things go wrong, they can be hellish experiences sapping the energy out of the full company. But if they go right…. The relaxed, smiling image of our designer and video artist, Shanaz Gulzar, tells the full story. The crew work fantastically together, the actors are eager, focussed and full of energy, and the day passes with a surprising amount of pleasure.

The cast and background lights from the crew.

By 10pm when we call it a day, I have a sense of the extraordinary complexity in Andrew Loretto’s production. He has set us off on separate but joined creative paths – me initially writing the script and trying to imagine the world of this immersive theatre experience –  Shanaz making her wonderful video projections – Shane Durrant creating an environmental soundscape and original composition – Gary Longfield painting with lights…. The actors have made their own in-depth explorations, discoveries and interpretations – but one person, Andrew as director, has been holding this all together in his imagination.

Ben Addis and projection.

Tomorrow (it’s past midnight…later today) we complete the tech’ and present the work for the first time in a public dress rehearsal. It will be exhilarating to try it out in front of an audience – and I can’t wait.

LeanerFasterStronger

A Sheffield Theatres and Chol Theatre Co-Production

Wed 23 May – Sat 2 June 2012 http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/leanerfasterstronger-12/

ANDREW LORETTO

Director

Shanaz Gulzar

Designer

Gary Longfield

Lighting Designer

Shane Durrant

Composer and Sound Designer

BEN ADDIS, KATHRYN DIMERY, CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON, MORVEN MACBETH

Actors

All photographs taken by Kaite O’Reilly in technical rehearsal at Sheffield Theatres. Copyright 22nd May 2012.

Lyn Gardner’s Guardian preview and Pick of the Week for LeanerFasterStronger

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Delighted to see the following from Lyn Gardner in the Guardian Guide 19th May:

LeanerFasterStronger

John Simm in Pinter’s Betrayal (to 9 Jun) in the main house may be getting all the attention, but Kaite O’Reilly’s play in the Crucible Studio feels very much like a play for today. In fact, with the country gearing up for the Olympics, its emphasis on the pursuit of gold and always being the best is particularly pertinent. It examines whether there’s a cost associated with the pursuit of excellence, and what “the best” means in a world of smart drugs, designer babies and genetic modifications. O’Reilly is a writer to cherish who should be more widely known, and this show promises to offer deeper insights around science, enhancement and what it really means to be human.

Crucible Studio, Wed to 2 Jun

Lyn Gardner

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/may/19/this-weeks-new-theatre-and-dance

LeanerFasterStronger: Researching a role: writer Kaite O’Reilly’s and performer Morven Macbeth’s perspectives.

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The wonderful Olga Korbut. 

Two perspectives on researching a role: Playwright Kaite O’Reilly and performer Morven Macbeth:

Kaite O’Reilly writes:

Olga Korbut. 1972. I was too young to really appreciate the radical impact she had on gymnastics, winning four gold medals and two silver, performing dangerous leaps and flips never before presented in competition; yet I think she was in the back of my mind when I decided to write a gymnast character in LeanerFasterStronger.

The character, called simply Gymnast, is not Olga Korbut, nor any of the athletes I interviewed or researched. Rather, she is a composite, with added imagination run wild.

Of all the sportspeople I interviewed when writing the play, the gymnasts left the longest lasting impression. It is partly to do with the concentration, the focus, the maturity, and the daily passing through the pain threshold from an early age which perturbed and tantalised, adding substance, even gravitas to such slender, slight forms. All gymnasts I spoke with had grace and eloquence, and an unusual understanding of the body, its functions and how to surpass its apparent limitations. They also seemed astonishingly light – not just with the weightlessness with which they seemed to pass through the world, but in their energy, how they conversed, in their smiles. I found the juxtaposition of this lightness with a close but detached scrutiny of their bodies – as though they were ‘stepped out of them’ – fascinating and disturbing.

When I’m creating work that is researched and not fully from my imagination, I allow myself to respond to the stimulus around me. I won’t reproduce interviewees’ stories (this is problematic for me when I am credited as the writer of a fiction), but I allow whatever impacted or impressed itself on me to find its way through in the character’s language. It’s about perception and perspective – how these different creatures view the world, and themselves in it. This starts creating a world-view I can then individualise and make specific to that invented character.

Character is revealed in scripts through language and vocabulary, through action and interaction, by what others in the world of the play say about the figure, or how they react to them. I write a blueprint, an outline for the actor to fill, something which I hope is rich with clues and guidance on how to approach this particular individual – but it is then down to the actor to give the invention breath, and step into that skin.

Morven Macbeth writes:

One of the 3 characters I play in LFS is simply called ‘Gymnast’.  She has some of my favourite lines in the whole script but I was very aware of my need to do some focussed research on this one!

Scottish gymnast Louise Mearns very kindly agreed to meet me for a coffee to talk about her passion, what inspired her to begin gymnastics and how she feels, what she experiences now as a young woman still taking part in the sport having switched aged 13 from Artistic Gymnastics to competing in TeamGym.

What got her started was a combination of watching gymnastics on the telly, her brother’s physiotherapy sessions as child with cerebral palsy and her own love of ballet and tap dancing.  Louise said that she ‘begged’ her parents to let her try gymnastics.

We talked, myself, Louise and her boyfriend Kenney Collins (also a gymnast) for nearly two hours and certain things really stand out for me as I go through the pages of notes I scribbled down as we talked:

PAIN – ABILITY TO RECOGNISE GOOD PAIN FROM BAD PAIN – THAT GYMNASTS ARE OFTEN IN CONSTANT PAIN, IT’S HOW YOU DEAL WITH IT.

INJURY, EVEN IF OUT FOR A SHORT TIME YOU’RE LOST – MASSIVELY DEMORALISING.  YOU LOSE SO MUCH STRENGTH, FITNESS FROM EVEN A SHORT BREAK BESIDES THE LOSS OF ROUTINE, THE SOCIAL ASPECT, BEING AWAY FROM FRIENDS, YOUR COACH.  AND AS FOR THOUGHTS OF THE FUTURE?  ARTHIRITIS?  ‘AH WELL – I’M NOT GOING TO LIVE IN FEAR’.

TRUST – THAT YOU TRUST THE COACH LITERALLY WITH YOUR LIFE

RELEASE – THE SENSE OF RELEASE FROM THE SPORT.  THE JOY, THE PLEASURE OF THE ABILITY TO DO SOMETHING THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE CAN’T.

CAREER WINDOW – THE FEMALE ARTISTIC GYMNAST’S CAREER IS OFTEN OVER BY 21 SO 6 YEARS AT BEST OF COMPETING.

PERSONAL QUALITIES REQUIRED – YOU NEED HIGH PAIN THRESHOLD, DETERMINATION, PATIENCE, SELF-MOTIVATION, FEARLESSNESS

LeanerFasterStronger

A Sheffield Theatres and Chol Theatre Co-Production

Wed 23 May – Sat 2 June 2012 http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/leanerfasterstronger-12/

LeanerFasterStronger, a week to opening: interviews and vox pop.

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Kaite O’Reilly, Dr Dave James and Andrew Loretto.

It’s a week now until the public dress rehearsal of LeanerFasterStronger at Sheffield Theatre’s Crucible Studio, and so preparations and publicity are stepping up. The Sheffield press have been delighted to discover I’m a graduate of the University, and there is some satisfaction in returning to the city and the theatre I attended frequently as a student, with my own production.

imove have produced some trailers for the project, short vox pops with director Andrew, co-producers Susan Burns and Dr Dave James, and myself. Please click on the following links for short videos on the production, from very different perspectives:

Kaite O’Reilly: http://vimeo.com/34130135
Andrew Loretto:  http://vimeo.com/34131024
Susan & Dave: http://vimeo.com/34127106

In certain contexts, I believe it’s important for the playwright to be around early in the rehearsal process to address any issues or queries with the script, but then to withdraw, and allow the company to make the work their own. In previous productions I’ve felt my presence in the room has thrown too long a shadow – the cast have wanted to please me and my notions of who the characters might be rather than freely discover their own interpretations. It’s time, then, to go. Unless we’re following a different process of continual co-creating, I will usually leave rehearsals during the second week of rehearsals, returning in production week with fresh eyes to respond to the work.

With the fantastic LeanerFasterStronger ensemble we have had a different dynamic, as from day one the cast’s ideas have impacted on the final revisions of the script. I saw a ‘stagger through’ on day nine of rehearsals before departing. I’m returning later this week to see a run, and am incredibly excited about seeing the work after a week. All the feedback from the rehearsal floor has been overwhelmingly positive, and I can’t wait to experience the work with the added layers of  Shanaz’s video projections and design, and Shane’s soundtrack.

Is it time to get rid of new writing? Kaite O’Reilly on panel discussion, West Yorkshire Playhouse

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6 – 7.30pm.    30 May 2012.

Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse,                           
Playhouse Square, 
Quarry Hill, 
Leeds
 LS2 7UP. 

Is it time to get rid of new writing?

Over the last 20 years British Theatre has witnessed a phenomenal growth in New Writing. But has New Writing become as much a curse as a blessing. In particular is there a harmful and false division between ‘New Work’ and ‘New Writing’? Is there too much development and not enough productions? Is there a ‘New Writing’ sort of play and is it killing off other kinds of writing? Come discuss these and other matters in a lively debate with:

Suzanne Bell
 New Writing Associate, Manchester Royal Exchange

David Eldridge
 Playwright

Fin Kennedy 
Playwright

Kaite O’Reilly
 Playwright

Dawn Walton
 Artistic Director, Eclipse Theatre

http://www.wyp.org.uk/what%27s-on/2012/is-it-time-to-get-rid-of-new-writing/

One hundred ‘rules’ for writing fiction: 62-66

One hundred ‘rules’ for writing fiction: 62-66.